Tempting Illusions
by fourthfireshadow
Summary: In her mind, she had a nagging feeling that she had gone through the same thing before. That she had experienced the same emotions once upon a time. An inkling that something was wrong. That something didn't add up. But she always used to brush it off. Now Sakura knew she had to find out what it meant. She just conveniently forgot the phrase-curiosity killed the cat.


**disclaimer-** I do not own the characters as they belong to kishimoto-san.

**genre-** Adventure/Romance/Drama

**note-** so, I got the gist of this from a random plot bunny which I don't remember where I saw it from, and I decided to make it an actual story because I've never seen one like this before on ff. hopefully you all like it. if anyone has an ideas to contribute, _please do!_

_Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review._

_Now, on with the story!_

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**T**_e__**m**_p**t**_i__**n**_g** I**_l__**l**_u**s**_i__**o**_n**s**

_Written by-FourthFireShadow_

**Chapter**_ 1_**-****Feelings **_of __**Déjà vu**_

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1. Sakura Haruno

It was utter chaos.

Everything was in complete disarray. The war was getting out of hand. It was way more intense, way more brutal, way more terrifying than anyone expected. At least, it was way more terrifying than any of the new generation of ninjas expected. The older ones who had already gone through the tough conditions of war and battle from the second and third shinobi world wars were always wearing a hardened expression, as if they had gone through enough of these wars in the past and had enough.

There was an abundance of injured shinobis and kunoichis coming in every single day of the war and it was proving to be more than the medical squad could handle, even if they had more numbers of medical-nin because of the shinobi alliance.

Sakura Haruno tilted her head a fraction, missing three shurikens and slammed her fist flaring with bright chakra at an enemy-nin, shattering his entire rib cage, killing him instantly. She had no time to ponder over her victory, as she spun quickly and blocked an incoming kick. Narrowing her eyes, she quickly jumped back and shot three senbon from her senbon-launcher with deadly accuracy, two hitting vital points and one embedding itself sadistically into the nin's eye. She didn't bat an eyelash.

She molded her chakra in her hands easily and formed two sharp chakra scalpels. Seeing that she was surrounded by at least five nins, she crouched down and quickly spun in a circle, her scalpels severing each one's leg tendons and ligaments, save for two who jumped before she could.

Assured that the other three wouldn't be able to get up anytime soon, she focused her gaze on the last two. The two were wary of her now, their stances tense and waiting.

_Good. Maybe that'll teach them to underestimate me, Haruno Sakura!_

It seemed one of them had gotten tired of waiting, and rushed forward. Sakura wasted no time to snap open a windmill shuriken and threw it towards the rushing enemy. He jumped up, but then Sakura smirked. She quickly pulled on the wire attached to the weapon, and it embedded itself onto the thigh of the nin as it was pulled back.

"Ugh. You bitch!" he grunted, but quickly pulled out the metal. She raised an eyebrow. _Ooh, tough guy._

She really didn't have time to waste, though. She had to run quickly if she wanted to get the supplies needed. She mentally checked her chakra stores. She growled under her breath._ Shit. Only forty percent. I need to make this quick!_

She rushed forward, tiring of waiting for the other to come at her, and jumped up high and dropped an axe kick. He dodged at the last second, swerving to the right. Not pausing for a breath, she caught one of his fists, crushing the bone and turned and jabbed a point near his heart with deadly accuracy and precision.

He was down. The chakra she had sent stops the heart. It was instant death. She quickly turned to the last one. By now, she was panting a bit. She could feel black spots in her vision. Insomnia and chakra exhaustion could kill a person. She sent a little chakra to her eyes, enhancing her eye-sight for a bit.

She picked up a nearby boulder and heaved it towards the nin. But her aim was off slightly and he dodged easily. She didn't have enough chakra to form chakra scalpels and she wanted to conserve whatever chakra she had left for emergencies. So, she had only one option; pure Taijutsu.

She punched and kicked, but he was good. He dodged nearly all of them, and had managed to nick her arm with a kunai, which was now bleeding. _Kuso!_ Suddenly remembering the training she had with Neji, she prayed it would work.

Dodging a punch, she took hold of his arm lightning fast and jabbed several points with accuracy, with chakra on her fingertips. She could see those spots turning red. It worked. He grunted when his arm fell limply, all use gone. He growled and jumped back, leaving distance between them. He never saw her coming.

She used the body flicker jutsu and In less than a second, she had quickly pulled forth her chakra to her hands and brought them to his temples, frying his nerves and damaging his brain, killing him instantly. She watched as his eyes rolled back into his head and felt no remorse, only numbness. This was for Konoha. Her home.

Leaving all the dead bodies and weaving through the mass destruction happening all around her, she ran across the fields to get her supplies. She couldn't last very long in her condition of severe chakra exhaustion. _I guess I should've listened to Shizune about taking it easy…_

And then she felt it. A huge wave of chakra blasted through the fields, its intensity so high that her eyes watered slightly and her skin felt a bit as if it was burning. She felt suffocated. She stopped on her tracks, the feeling was too much. She had felt this before, she was sure of it. This intensity, this reaction. This chakra. She had felt this when Naruto had turned into the—

She felt her blood run cold. _No._

She turned around in an instant, her eyes squinting, her pink hair flying from the sudden wind, her arms up to protect herself from the flying debris. In the far distance, she could see the ultimate monster. The ultimate bringer of destruction. the demon who had been sealed inside the sage of the six paths himself.

The Ten-tails.

And she let herself fear for her friends, for her family, for her _team_, _for herself_. She let herself have that _one moment of weakness_ amongst this bloody war, and hardened herself again.

Because now, she could be strong. For her friends, for her family, for her home, and for Naruto and Sasuke. Because she knew there was no going back now.

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2. Naruto Uzumaki

"—You!" Naruto sputtered.

Itachi only glanced at him briefly. "Relax. I'm no longer under Kabuto's control. I used a new genjutsu against the enemy's genjutsu. It erased the reanimation jutsu."

Killer Bee landed on top of the tree. "What's going on?"

"I prepared that crow to respond to my mangekyou sharingan. It's implanted in that crow's eye." His face was emotionless, his eyes sharp.

"—Uchiha Shisui's. The ultimate mangekyou sharingan genjutsu in existence; Koto Amatsukami. Using that, I was able to restore myself. However, it appears Shisui's mangekyou has already worn off." Itachi explained quietly.

"Uchiha…Shisui?" Naruto murmured, confused.

"The Uchiha clan's most powerful genjutsu user— Shunshin no Shisui?" Killer Bee asked.

Itachi turned toward Bee. "Shisui's visual prowess creates a powerful genjutsu that allows you to control someone without them even realizing it."

Itachi's eyes were far away as he explained, "I programmed the genjutsu to protect the Hidden Lead into Shisui's eye. Then I transplanted it into the crow's left eye and after that, I gave the crow to you, Naruto."

His eyes then focused on Naruto, whose chakra could be physically seen as a golden glow. "I never imagined that I would be using it on myself someday.

Naruto was still confused. Some things didn't quite add up. "Why did you give that eye, and why did you give it to me?" he asked.

Itachi's eyes shifted from the mangekyou to its regular tomoed state. "Self-sacrifice…the mark of a true shinobi is not to seek glory, but to protect from the shadows. Shisui taught me that. Shisui anticipated that a battle would ensue for his eyes. So he faked his own death and made it seem like his eyes were destroyed. I helped him by becoming a target of suspicion in the village."

His eyes narrowed as he remembered his past. "When I last saw Shisui, Danzo had managed to steal his right eye. He bequeathed his other eye to me. Telling me to use it to protect the village and disappeared. I gave that eye to you, because you share Shisui's feelings."

Naruto's orange eyes widened in surprise.

"If Sasuke, whom I left behind ever became a threat to the village, then I would have violated all that Shisui entrusted me to do. You are the only one who can make it _right._ You said you consider Sasuke as a brother. That's why I felt that you would be the one to stop him." Itachi said solemnly.

"True power, in his quest to achieve the eternal mangekyou, he planned on transplanting my eyes onto himself. If that ever happened, the crow was supposed to emerge from you in response to coming into contact with my eyes and cast the Koto Amatsukami to protect the Leaf, onto Sasuke."

"…That was my plan."

"Why didn't you use this jutsu on Sasuke in the first place using Shisui's eye?" Killer Bee asked.

"It's not that I didn't, I couldn't" Itachi said. "Not at that time. Shisui's mangekyou would take decades to reactivate, unless you had Senju Hashirama's chakra."

Naruto's gaze grew determined. "Itachi…" He looked at the person who had sacrificed his whole life for the sake of the village, and he couldn't help but admire him. "Thank you for trusting me. You don't have to worry anymore. You've done more than enough for the village. Leave the rest to me!"

Itachi couldn't stop the slight widening of his eyes.

"_I would defend the leaf village, but I would also stop Sasuke without killing him!"_

The corner of his pale lips quirked up in a slight smirk. He honestly didn't know why he was so surprised; it was expected, after all. "My little brother…is lucky to have friends like you."

Naruto felt it first. The heaviness in the air. He could feel the foreign chakra particles in the atmosphere easily being in chakra mode, and after a second there was a huge blast of chakra, chakra like waves rolling off in their direction. It was intense; it was almost palpable in the air. He knew Bee felt it too, it was something all jinchuurikis could understand. The bloodlust in the air could only be emitting from on being;

"The Ten-tails." Itachi breathed. Naruto looked over at him in surprise, but knew he shouldn't be surprised. It was Itachi Uchiha after all. But then understanding and grim determination settled on his face.

"The Ten-tails wasn't supposed to be out yet! This—how?" Naruto all but growled, his chakra spiking dangerously.

"Maybe things aren't going according to plan." Killer Bee stated, for once not rapping. He understood the seriousness. "Or maybe it was impatience."

"Whatever the reason, I can assure you the end won't be good."

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3. Sasuke Uchiha

Darkness.

It was pure darkness. It was all around him. It was inside him, it was outside him, it had become a part of him. He could never get far without it. He'd had a lot of time to think when he was lying uselessly, he was restless. Konoha would pay for what they did. He would make sure of it.

He remembered thinking of Konoha in his pain-induced state. He remembered thinking about his past home in his moment of weakness; in his one moment of vulnerability. He thought about how the village looked now; like how he remembered or if it was all destroyed to the ground. He thought of the old Uchiha Districat and the Police Force building—if it was still standing, or if the Konoha scum had degraded it. he thought about konoha's chances of survival—slim.

He also remembered thinking about his past team. Team 7. His once upon a time escape. He remembered thinking about the blond loud-mouthed idiot, the perverted lazy sensei and the pink-haired annoying fan-girl. He thought about their many search missions for him, how they never succeeded; and probably never will. Not when he was about to destroy their beloved home. That must be enough to stop the _supposed_ best friend and the girl who loves him to stop running after him. His team from a past life that had no use for him.

He grew restless and agitated, thinking about useless memories. They were nothing to him, after all. Nothing. This was why he _hated vulnerability._

Patience had never been his strong point. He could feel Zetsu's chakra in the hideout. Time was slipping away, and he would wait no longer. His eyes felt fine now anyway. The bandages were what were irritating him. He couldn't wait to test his new eyes. _Time's up._

And who better to use Itachi's eyes on than Zetsu himself?

He sent his chakra to his eyes, to use the third technique of the sharingan. Susanoo.

The hideout was crumbling. It couldn't hold the sudden large appearance of the gigantic humanoid being of chakra, the Susanoo.

"?!" White Zetsu looked up in sudden surprise. "Stop it! Why is this happening!?"

"ughk!" Zetsu gurgled out as he struggled to sit up from the un-expected attack of an object of heavy weight pinning him. Sasuke.

And suddenly, he felt an unbelievable pain. He's never felt anything like it. He felt like he was burning.

"Gaaaaaugh!" he screamed in utter agony as the black flames continue to burn on his skin. It never stopped, and he knew the Amaterasu never will until everything in its path was destroyed.

"My eyes feel fine in the darkness._ Shall we test it outside?"_

The hideout was completely destroyed into bits of boulders and stone as the Susanoo took on its full form. Sasuke had never felt power like this before. This was more than the curse seal. This was way _more._ And he was intoxicated. The Susanoo and Amaterasu had barely taken much effort.

This was the power of the Eternal Mangekyou.

He removed the bandages wrapped tightly around his eyes. He opened his—Itachi's—eyes for the first time. He was looking at the world through his brother's eyes now. He didn't know how he felt about that.

Everything was clearer. Sharper. He could see again, nothing was blurry. He could make out every single detail, like the cracks in the stones and the destruction around him, every piece of rubble. He could see the bright rays of the sun. _everything._ It was like looking at a whole new defined version of the world.

"These eyes…can see fine in the darkness."

He felt nothing. No remorse, no regret. He only felt a familiar sense of numbness fill him.

Suddenly, the air was suffocating. _Why?_ It was getting heavy. It felt like it was weighing him down. It could only be one of the tailed beasts. But most of them were captured, he knew. Except for the Eight and the Nine-tails. So it was either of them, or maybe it was…no. he didn't have all the demons for that. But still—

His blood red eyes narrowed threateningly.

_Madara, what are you doing?_

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4. Obito Uchiha

Obito knew he had very little time left. He knew the statue was still incomplete, but he was lacking patience. Konoha was fighting back almost insanely, and even though it was only a seed of doubt in the beginning, he now began to fear that maybe, just maybe, they had a_ chance._

And now, he learnt that Itachi Uchiha had somehow managed to break the connection and refute from Kabuto's Edo Tensei. _Che. Kabuto never could do anything right._ Itachi had always been too smart, too strong. An eternal pain on the side. If only the Uchiha could see the benefits of the plan. What kind of a _pacifist_ didn't want peace?

He discarded all those thoughts, but his doubt came back full-force. Itachi knew the basic workings of the plan and that was enough to skewer it, and he had worked long and hard for it to all fail in the end. Madara may have been the initial mind behind the eye of the moon plan, but he was the one who did all the work.

Also, because Madara was a reanimated body, he could never be the host of the Ten-tails. He was just an old man in reality. A corpse that needs to stay six feet under the ground but refuses to. Madara knew Obito knew he needed him to be the host, if he ever wanted to complete the plan to control the world.

In some part of his brain, he acknowledged that the Uchiha clan really _was_ a sick and twisted clan.

He could afford to waste no more time. He already had the first seven tailed beasts. The only ones he couldn't acquire were the Eight-tails' and the Nine-tails, but that couldn't be helped now.

Obito had already taken the Kohaku no Jōhei and Benihisago that each contained one of the Gold and Silver Brothers, and had already fed the Eight-Tails' tentacle to the Demonic Statue, with the intention to put the plan into motion.

Everything was ready, however incomplete. But it would be fine. This was for a semblance of peace, and no one would know any better after it was executed. Everything will go the way he wanted. He was always one step ahead, after all.

He could finally be with Rin again.

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Their world became blank.

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A four year old Sakura Haruno knelt down on the grounds, her small feeble hands clutching desperately, tightly at the blades of grass. Helpless at the taunts and wicked words of the others. longs bangs of pink hair obscured her vision as she felt the pressure build behind her eyes. She could feel her cheeks heating up as she was humiliated. Ridiculed. And she had no idea why. Why was she such an easy target?

No. she didn't _want _to cry.

She didn't _want _to be weak. But she was, oh she was. And she knew it.

"Oh god, looks at the size of that thing! I could spot it a mile away" the ring-leader, Ami, yelled out laughing and pointing and the others joined in.

And it didn't stop.

"Seriously, your parents must be ashamed to have such a freak as a kid!"

"You're such a _loser!_"

_Stop. _

"Billoard-brow! Billboard-brow!"

_Stop it…Please_. She could feel the tears forming.

"It's just _so big! _ha!" she squeezed her eyes shut.

"_Stop it! All of you! You should be ashamed of yourselves! Now get outta here!"_

Startled, Sakura lifted her head to look up and her eyes widened as she saw the girl in front of her, speaking up for her, standing up for _her._ _What…? _Sakura recognized who the girl was easily enough. She was Ino Yamanaka, one of the most, if not _the most_ popular girl in elementary school. But why would she stand up for her? But that wasn't the sudden weird part. Why did she feel familiar with this scene just now?

"And what are you gonna do if we don't, huh?" Ami sneered snottily at the girl.

Ino merely raised a blond eyebrow. "I can just go and call one of the teachers over here, ya know. Let's see how confident you are then."

Those words were enough for Ami and her lackeys to run away from the scene without another word. The grounds were empty now, save for the two four year old girls. Sakura lowered her head once more and felt the tears start flowing again once she recalled her helplessness.

"Hey, are you the one they're always teasing cuz' you've got such a big forehead?"

Sakura's eyes widened again but then she started to cry remembering her main source of problem. Her big forehead. Ino's face softened when she saw the pink-haired girl trying to stifle her sobs. "What's your name?"

"My…names—sniffle—Sa…kura."

"Huh? Hello! I can't hear you if you speak so softly! So let's try that again shall we? What's your name?"

"My name's SAKURA!" she yelled out, finally quieting her cries.

Ino grinned. "That's better!" she bent down to Sakura's level and pushed back her long pink bangs. "So that's the famous forehead, huh? Well, it _is_ pretty big. Is that why you hide it with your bangs?"

Sakura whimpered softly. Her throat felt clogged up from her tears and cries and couldn't reply, but she didn't need to.

"Well that's dumb. It just makes it look worse! Kinda makes you look like a sheepdog!"

_Great. That makes me feel a whole lot worse!_

"You know what? I think I've got something for you." Standing properly again, Ino searched in the pocket on her mini and finally finding what she was looking for, pulled out a long red satin ribbon. Bending down again, she pushed back the pink bangs gently and tied the ribbon on her head like a head-band, successfully holding back her bangs. She leaned back and inspected her work while Sakura looked on with wide green eyes.

"There. I think that looks a whole lot better already!" Ino said, grinning.

Sakura lifted one hand and felt the satin material of the ribbon on her head. But then she remembered. "But…"

Ino raised an eyebrow. "Huh? But what?"

"…But my forehead…"

"Don't worry about it Sakura! I'm telling you, the more you hide it, the bigger deal you make of it! And your face isn't that bad! It's actually a pretty good face! You just gotta have more confidence, okay?"

And looking at Ino's smiling face; Sakura felt a sense of happiness. That maybe, just maybe, she could learn to stand up for herself. And someday, have the same confidence like Ino.

They would go on to become inseparable. They would go on to become best friends.

But in her mind, she had a nagging feeling that she had gone through the same thing before. That she had experienced the same emotions once upon a time. An inkling that something was wrong. That something didn't add up. But being a four year old, she brushed off those feelings aside and let herself bask in the happiness of finding her first friend.

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_Eight years later_

A twelve year old Sakura Haruno blew an irritating strand of hair away from her face. She swiveled her head from side to side, bored. She tuned out the useless lectures of her homeroom teacher, Iruka-sensei. She didn't _want_ nor _need_ to know what the stupid senior jocks had done to the pool or what the stupid senior cheerleaders had written on the walls of the bathroom and that we should_ never try something like that again_. They were only in seventh grade, for God's sake!

_This is all so boring. Why are his speeches always boring?_

_**I know! I mean, let **_**us**_** decide if we want to fill the pool with cranberry juice when we get older! Or better yet, we'll do something better!**_

Sakura was already used to the sarcastic voice that lived inside her head. She had appropriately named the entity Inner Sakura, since she was the epitome of all things evil and sarcastic about Sakura herself, and she knew it. Inner Sakura had manifested in her mind from her childhood, when she was about six years old, but she never told anyone about her. Not only for the reason that other people would think she had schizophrenia, or worse— being crazy, but because Inner Sakura helped her express her real opinions and emotion, if only in the mind.

Plus, it also helped that she was fairly entertaining. _Well, as fairly entertaining as talking to oneself can be._

_**Oooh, I think something interesting's going to happen…**_

At that, Sakura looked at Iruka-sensei and paid some mind.

"Now, as of today, your principle has decided to form three-man teams or groups who will be your permanent partners for the rest of the year. This means that the three teammates will do all group works or projects together for credit. You can't get out of this one, kids."

The whole homeroom class collectively groaned, including Sakura. Group works were always a bitch. Most of the time, the people in the team couldn't even work together. It would be awesome if she was assigned with her friends, but with her luck she probably wouldn't be. Yet she felt something weird. Something was picking at her mind. As if—

"Okay, next team—this will be Team number seven— Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha."

Her mind felt like a void. She could feel a migraine coming on. She barely registered the sympathetic glance Ino sent her way, or the groans of the fan girls of the class, or the indignant yell of the resident class clown as he pointed an accusing finger at the other member of the group. No, she didn't care much about that. But what she did care about was the torrent of emotions that had filled her head and heart. The most prominent ones she could decipher—anger, depression, hope, yearning and the most confusing one of all—_ love._ A deep aching feeling that left her feeling a little winded.

She didn't understand it at all. And then came the sounds.

"_You pass. Team 7 starts tomorrow!"_

"_Yes!I did it! ni—"_

They were faint and ended instantly, but it kept ringing. Her eyes widened in fear as she registered them and she snapped her eyes to the front. Iruka-sensei was still talking, kids were still groaning. Class was going on, as usual. So then, the sounds came from her mind.

_Wh…what was that?_

…_**I don't know. **_

It did little to reassure her, especially since she had never known Inner Sakura to be so quiet. The intense emotions she had felt when her team was called had dimmed down now, barely distinguishable. She remembered, the hope, the anger, the sadness and the love, even if it was for a split second. She was extremely confused. She could never remember the time she felt such strong emotions, save for the time she met Ino. And she didn't even know her new teammates to incur such feelings in her!

She only knew Naruto Uzumaki as the resident class clown. He was the son of the mayor of Konoha and his okaa-san was a lawyer. That was basic information. She knew he was a prankster, was loud and eccentric with bright blond hair and blue eyes and was always smiling. _Always._

Sasuke Uchiha was the resident heartthrob, even at twelve. Most girls liked him; most boys envied him, being a genius and a hottie and all. She knew that most of his family was police officers and that he used to hero-worship the ground his older brother, Itachi, walked on. She had also found him cute when she was a child, but remembered forcing herself not to be like one of his fan girls. But that was it. That was the end of her extent of information on them.

_**Actually, that's not it. You had felt more once…**_

_What? Whe—oh._

And then she remembered. The brief but intense flash of emotion she had when she saw them for the first time. She was six, when she saw them in kindergarten. She had felt something. She couldn't remember the exact feeling, but she could sum up that it was something similar to today. Yet she had never gone to them before. Ever. Maybe she steered clear of them subconsciously because of it.

_**Well, you can't now. You have no choice **_**but**_** hang out with them.**_

_Yeah. I wonder…if they felt the same sometimes as me. What if we can't work together? It looks like Sasuke and Naruto already hate each other, so what if we can't even be friends?_

_**You'll be friends. **_**Trust**_** me.**_

And oddly, she believed that. Maybe it was because of the way Inner spoke with such shattering confidence, or the way she felt such strong emotions before, the way she felt a feeling of eerie déjà vu, but she believed it, However naïve it was.

Soon enough, they would go on to become best friends for life, creating a bond no one could even attempt to break.

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* * *

_4 years later_

"Naruto! Stop scarfing down all the rice balls! There are other people here too, ya know!" a sixteen year old Sakura Haruno yelled at the blond idiot, annoyed.

"Maa! Sakura-chan! I can't help it! I just love Mikoto-obaa-chan's rice balls!" Naruto cried, not stooping his ravenous eating, spilling bits everywhere on the wooden table. Sakura scrounged up her face in disgust.

"Ugh. At least eat with your mouth closed idiot!" Sakura yelled back, making Naruto shrink back in fear. Sasuke only shaked his head annoyance and muttered "idiot."

They were hanging out at Sasuke's house, as they do all Thursdays. It had become a sort of tradition for them, so they stuck to it. Plus, neither Naruto nor Sakura were about to turn down an invitation to eat Mikoto-chan's cooking. They were a god-send.

"It's fine, Naruto-kun! You eat how much ever you want, alright? I have plenty more from where that came from." Mikoto said, laughing.

"Fan foo, fifoo-fan!" Naruto spoke with his mouth full. _Ugh._ Sakura cringed.

"No problem! You want some more, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura beamed. She loved Mikoto-chan's rice balls almost as much as dango. And that was saying something. "Yes please, Mikoto-chan!"

"I'll make some more, then. Sasuke-chan, please don't forget to clean your room today. Oh, I wanted to remind you that I've put those clean boxers in your room. I've also sewn your name on the band, so you won't lose them like that time you lost your underwear during swim team practice!" and she walked away smiling, fully aware that she had just embarrassed her son in front of his friends. A mother wouldn't have done her job properly if she hadn't embarrassed their kids in front of their friends, every mom knew that. It was the rite of passage!

"_Kaa-san!"_ Sasuke hissed lowly.

"Bahahaha! _You have your name on your underwear?!_?Really Sasuke?!" Naruto laughed out loud, nearly falling out of his seat, his eyes filling with tears of mirth.

"Shut up, dobe!" Sasuke could feel the tips of his ears turning red. And what's worse, Sakura was also laughing. Great.

Sakura also laughed amusedly and glanced at Sasuke. She resisted the urge to blush like a fan girl, though. He looked so _cute_ pouting, a light pink dusting on his cheeks. She had an urge to just glomp him right then and there, but she knew he wouldn't appreciate that, so settled on laughing with Naruto. Mikoto-chan truly was evil.

When Sasuke directed his Uchiha Death Glare onto her, she simply stuck her tongue out. "Hey, look at the bright side, now you'll never lose your underwear!" then Sakura put a finger on her chin as if thinking thoughtfully about something.

"Or your fan girls will know it's your underwear and place it in their shrine of you or whatever."

"Oh yeah, that will so totally happen! I don't envy you teme!" Naruto laughed, enjoying his best friend's humiliation.

"Shut up! Both of you!"

That just made them laugh more. Sakura really enjoyed the expressions he was making. He was so sighed._ I really am pathetic, crushing on my best friend. And I'm too spineless to do anything about it._

But it was fine, really. She looked at her two best friends. Naruto was still laughing so hard and he still had managed to form a smug expression on his face. Probably because he found something to blackmail his rival-turned-best friend/brother with. It's not every day that the great Sasuke Uchiha gets embarrassed, after all. Sasuke was glaring lightning at Naruto, the tips of his ears still red. She could see the twitch in his clenched hand.

_Bam!_

"Oww! What the hell, teme!? What was that for?!"

"For laughing at me, idiot."

"Don't call me an idiot, bastard!"

_And it starts again._

But this time, she welcomed it and didn't try to get in the way of their brotherly brawls. Even if she wanted something more with Sasuke, she didn't want to risk losing his friendship at all. So in a way, she was fine now.

She was content, it's not often _she_ is nowadays. She let a smile grow on her face and watched the entertaining scene with mirth-filled green eyes. She'd let the fight go on a bit more before she intervened. She didn't want them to get _all_ the fun.

.

.

.

* * *

"_My favorite thing is…well it's not a thing exactly, it's a boy…" she blushed, giddy. "My hobbies are…" she glanced to the side._

_._

"_I'm gonna be Hokage someday! So everyone will acknowledge my existence at last!" he was grinning, bright and happy; but his blue eyes were determined._

_._

"…_but I have an ambition; to kill a certain man." _

_._

"_Those who forsake the mission are scum, but those who forsake their teammates are worse than scum."_

_._

"…_Thank You, Sakura."_

_._

Her green eyes snapped open as she sat up straight on the bed abruptly, her breathing hoarse. She lifted her hand and felt along her forehead; she was sweating. She loosened her tight grip on the bed sheets. Her eyes darted side to side before closing them in exhaustion.

This wasn't the first time she experienced peculiar dreams as the one she had tonight. She had been getting them for a while. Sometimes she would feel bizarre and intense emotion, sometimes she would dream of flashes of vivid colors, or sometimes, like tonight, she would hear bits of a conversation or sounds.

And it scared her.

She was staring outside her window, her head tilted up at the sky, but she wasn't seeing. Her mind was far away. She knew she wouldn't be getting much sleep now. It was always like this the days she would get these…_dreams. _She would always remember them clearly the next day. Usually, a person forgets the dream they had had, but not her. They stuck, replaying again and again.

And whenever this happened, Inner Sakura was always unusually quiet.

She didn't know what they were. Were they just something made up by her subconscious or…something else? She just didn't know. No, she didn't think they were mad up by her subconscious. She wasn't _that _imaginative.

Honestly, if she kept this up, she would grow to be an insomniac. No, she needed to know what they were. Were they a sign…or…

She did remember one thing though. One of the people that had appeared in her dream looked suspiciously like Naruto. True, it was blurry, and not clear enough to be sure, but she knew his voice when it was determined, and it sounded closely to what she had heard in her dream.

Her eyes narrowed. She resolved to get to the bottom of this, whatever it was. After all, it wasn't like Haruno Sakura to give up on something. She was a curious girl, after all.

But a phrase ran through her mind, almost in a sing-song voice.

_**But in the end, curiosity killed the cat.**_

* * *

_._

_._

_._


End file.
